From HF29's Famous Last Words Department: "3 minutes left. This game is so over." Habs 4 - Rubber Duckies 3 (SO)

So it was a lovely weekend. Great weather, saw a few friends, Habs take care of business Saturday night. What better way to end it than a Habs Sunday night game? Against a beatable team? Finish off the road trip 3-1 and come home in a playoff spot. Sounds like a plan.

Then the Habs played the first period. Ugh. You know, really it wasn't that bad in the offensive zone. We had chances, just couldn't finish. Oh Squid, where art thou? BEEP BEEP. What's that sound? It's the sound of the Habs' D backing up. And backing up again. And again. 3-0 Ducks. Don't blame Carey, haters. Blame the D.

This game is essentially over. Price pulled. Back and forth to the Oscars goes the remote. There were a couple of highlights in the meantime. Beautiful stretch pass by Gorges to Pleks for a breakaway to get our first goal. Some Jaro-on-Jaro violence. But overall, this game was not particularly entertaining. Habs continued to generate a little offence, but couldn't bury anything. By the third period, it looked like the teams were skating in Jell-o. All except for Little Tits, who seemed to have a spring in his step. But as the third period came to a close, nothing was happening. By three minutes left, this game was over. What's on the History Channel?


Oooh, classic. Fantastic dramatic re-enactment of the Attack on Pearl Harbor from both the Japanese and American perspective. Brings back memories of my father, who was a huge WWII movie buff. This will be a great thing to fall asleep to, and I should get to bed because I have an early meeting tomorrow. Go brush my teeth, tidy up the oven mitts, get into bed, turn on the History Channel. Before falling asleep, I set my clock radio alarm. I check the volume on the radio (I don't have a separate volume knob for the radio alarm) which is tuned to CJAD as always. I hear the dulcet tones of Rick Moffat doing play-by-play. Huh?

What? Is this on tape delay? And now why is he talking about overtime? A shootout? Is this a replay from an old game? WTF? In a daze I switch the TV to RDS. Habs going to a shootout. Apparently, this is what I had missed:

- Dominic Moore working hard in the Ducks zone, picking up a loose puck, beautiful feed to Gio, goal! 3-2, 1:50 left
- Jaro pulled for the extra attacker
- Markov getting a nasty two-fisted slash on the hands from Corey Perry, no call
- Bobby Ryan picks up the loose puck caused by said slash, fires at the empty net, misses
- Habs putting on late pressure, 15 seconds left, beautiful feed from CHicken to Markov, goal!
- Markov to Perry: Suck it, dickface!
- Perry to Markov: Eat my glove, fuckface!
- Scrum ensues.

Just an average three minutes of hockey.

Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I hate shootouts. I want to see the NHL go back to 60-minute ties. But if all shootouts had this much drama, I may get converted. Down to the last shooter who needs to score to extend it, Gio shoots and Hiller saves. Sort of. Sliding back into his net, puck dribbles through him somehow, and goal! We have life! Uh, the play is being reviewed? In a shootout? The overlords in Toronto confirm the goal. After a Jaro save, Pleks hits the ice, the same Pleks who hasn't scored in a shootout since before there were shootouts. Goal! An average road trip becomes a successful road trip.

Thanks to three minutes I totally missed.